wth, whatever your ideas on the subject is."

Collier Pratt seated himself at the deal table that Sheila had set
with the coffee-cups and a big loaf of French bread, and began slowly
consuming a bowl of inky fluid, strong of chicory, into which from
time to time he dipped a portion of the loaf. Sheila imitated his
processes with less daintiness and precision, since she was shaken
with excitement at Hitty's appearance.

"I should spread a newspaper down if I was you," Hitty said, "before I
et my vittles off a table that way. If a table ain't scrubbed as often
as twice a day it ain't fit to be et off."

"I know your breed," Collier Pratt said. "You'd be capable of taking
your breakfast off _The Evening Telegram_ if no more appropriately
colored sheet were at hand. Tell me, did Miss Martin send you here
this morning, or was the inspiration to come entirely your own?"

"Nobody had to send me. Wild horses wouldn't have kept me away from
here."

"Nor drag you away from here, I suppose, until your gruesome visit is
accomplished. What makes you think that I would give up Sheila to
you?"

"I don't _think_ you would. I know you're a-goin' to."

"Indeed."

"We want the child. You don't want her, and you can't pretend to me
that you do. Even if you did want her you can't take care of her in no
way that's decent."

"There's a great deal in what you say, Hitty."

"What you're going to do is to sign a paper giving up your claim to
her, and then Nancy can adopt her when she sees fitting to do so."

"What would you suggest my doing about the child's mother? She has a
mother living, you know."

"Well, I didn't know," Hitty said, "but now I do know I guess I ain't
going to have so much trouble as I thought I was. You're just a plain
low-down yellow cur that any likely man I know would come down here
and lick the lights out of."

"Well, don't send any more of them, Hitty," Collier Pratt protested.
"My work won't stand it."

"You 'tend to the child's mother then, and I'll 'tend to you. You'd
better let Sheila come away peaceable without any more trouble."

"What do you propose doing to me if I don't?"

"There's so many different things I could use," Hitty said thoughtfully,
"that I don't know which one to hold over your head first."

"I don't see how you could use anything you've got."

"I'd just as soon use something I hadn't got," Hitty said grimly. "I'd
sue you for breach o' promise myself ruther than lose what I c